Scotney's a bargain...you've got your great house, 19th century, your gardens, and then your folly, which is actually a 15th century fortified residence that has been wrecked in order to create a "folly." The residences are nice, but it's the garden--a forest of rhododendrons and more--that most impresses. And we were there at just the height of the bloom.
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| Scotney, frontal view of the "new" house |
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| Other side |
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| The usual comforts |
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| Thus |
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And up those stairs is the apartment
Margaret Thatcher used as a quiet "get-away"
during her years as PM |
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But the real glory of the place is the folly, the moated
15th century residence below, and the gardens around it |
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Me in the "holloway," the Old Bayham Track,
the ancient road dug through the estate by
centuries of travel, mostly by pigs going to
market...the signage said "This little piggy
went to market" |
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It was at this point we figured out we were not arriving in
England too late to see the rhododendrons and the azaleas |
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"Rhodo Riot" I began calling it; everywhere;
and as we moved from Kent to Sussex, it got
better, much better |
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| Thus; and a sprinkling of azaleas too |
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| Along the moat surrounding the old castle |
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Thus; in the 19th century, the family had the old structure
partially torn down in order to create a "folly" (look it up) for
the gardens |
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Us, on the moat, the old castle--aka the folly--and the new
residence in the distance; it was our 45th wedding anniversary |
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| More rhodos |
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| New residence from the old |
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On the moat again; was this what Monet was
aiming for? |
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| The folly's tower |
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| And more rhodos... |
3 comments:
The flowers are fabulous...and I have even read enough Regency romances to know what a "folly" is! I love the castle. Great photos...Monet would be jealous.
I did not know that Rhododendrons and azaleas grew in England. Don't know why, but I consider them to be American. Lots of them in the mountains of East Tennessee, and we even had them in Connecticut.
Rhodos are neat; I first saw them as a child in the Smokies; most notably in Nepal, where they are the national flower, there are over 40 varieties, whole forests of them--large trees--growing at higher elevations; we passed through one such near Tengboche on the way to Everest.
When Cara spent a summer living with a family in France, she noticed hydrangeas for the first time and thought that they were French flowers. She was so surprised that they grew in Fayetteville. She had just never noticed them before. I guess that is how I am about rhododendrons.
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